Infanta Maria Teresa class

The Infanta María Teresa class were a series of three armored cruisers built for the Spanish Navy by Astilleros del Nervión (Bilbao) and all of them lost in the naval Battle of Santiago de Cuba of the Spanish War -American in 1898. At first 6 ships were planned, but delays caused the last three to undergo modifications and become their own class, the Cardenal Cisneros class.

Design

Diagram of the Infanta Teresa class vessels.

The naval shipyard in Bilbao, Spain, built the three units of the Infanta María Teresa class. Originally, the Spanish Navy had planned to build twin ships of the battleship Pelayo, but the Carolinas crisis with the German Empire in 1885 caused Spain to divert money budgeted for the battleships to the Infanta María Teresa class. Armored cruisers were considered more desirable than additional battleships at the time because their greater speed and navigation range made them more suitable for responding to colonial crises in locations far from home.

Cruise model Infanta María Teresa.

The Infanta María Teresa and her two sister ships were versions inspired by the British Orlando-class en:Orlando-class cruiser armored cruisers, with a larger size and with a more powerful artillery that displaced 5,000 tons, with armor based on the same principle. The ships were relatively fast, but their protection was poor. A narrow armored belt covered only two-thirds of the waterline amidships, with the armored deck flat over the belt, but curving downward at the ends, with a sloped armored glacis over the engine room. Wide tenders were placed above the belt, with a group of narrower tenders to the sides of the engine room below the waterline.

Hontoria 280mm guns, which had only lightly armored cowlings, were installed fore and aft along with 140mm repeating guns above the open-air upper deck, behind protective screens. The ships had a high unprotected freeboard. Their upper decks were planked beams with no steel lining. The ships were also highly decorated and fitted with wood, which the Spanish were unable to remove before the naval battle of Santiago de Cuba and which it would fuel the fires after the enemy shells fell. The Infanta María Teresa was the flagship of Admiral Cervera.

These ships, which were initially classified as 1st class protected cruisers, were also classified as armored cruisers by other navies, since, despite their low displacement (6890 tons), its protection (305-254 mm armored belt and 229 mm barbettes) was much higher than usual in protected cruisers (from 70 to 152 mm, with some exceptions), as was the case with its main artillery, which was comparable to that of a contemporary battleship. Therefore, the possibility of designating, or locating designees, these vessels in both ways should be considered. In the same way, it should be noted that before the start of the Spanish-American War, the Berenguer government decided, for both publicity and intimidation purposes, to reclassify them as 2nd class battleships.

History

The Infanta María Teresa-class armored cruisers were units that served in both European and American waters. After the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898, the three were assigned to the 1st Squadron, commanded by Vice Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete, and in which the three were sunk in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba.

Class ships

Name	Shipyards	Initiated	Boots	Assigned	Low	Cause	Image
Infanta María Teresa	Society Shipyards of the Nervoon	24 July 1889	30 de gosto de 1890	28 August 1893	3 July 1898	Strike in the naval battle of Santiago de Cuba
Vizcaya	Society Shipyards of the Nervoon	7 October 1889	8 July 1891	2 August 1894	3 July 1898	Strike in the naval battle of Santiago de Cuba
Admiral Oquendo	Society Shipyards of the Nervoon	16 November 1889	3 October 1891	21 August 1895	3 July 1898	Strike in the naval battle of Santiago de Cuba